Flipping fraud and Sarasota shootings among the top local stories of 2012

Saturday

Dec 29, 2012 at 9:14 PM

19 flippers sentenced

Sentences have been handed down to R. Craig Adams, Richard Bobka and 17 of their associates for participating in one of the biggest flipping fraud cases in Florida history. The cases established that the region became a hotbed for fraudulent real estate deals during the boom.

For more than a decade, members of the conspiracy inflated real estate prices by flipping properties to each other and lying on mortgage applications to get more loan money than they otherwise could have obtained.

Three of the co-conspirators — Paula Hornberger, George Cavallo and Joel Streinz — maintained their innocence and opted for trial at the beginning of the year. But after three months of grueling and emotional testimony, a jury found them all guilty.

Since the trial, federal prosecutors have indicted a 20th member of the conspiracy, and there are indications that others also may be charged.

— Michael Braga

Housing market picks up

Southwest Florida's long battered housing market was on the mend in 2012, with home sales through November on pace for their best total since the Great Recession and the fourth-highest in 90 years.

The industry began climbing during a busy spring buying season and never slowed for the traditional lull of summer and the holidays, with 19,910 homes in the region changing hands this year. Led by that ferocious demand and a diminished housing supply that is nearing its lowest point in a decade, median sales prices in Sarasota have similarly increased by $12,450 during the past 12 months to reach $174,450 in November.

— Josh Salman

'Cold Blood' killers dug up

After more than 50 years of investigation, the Walker family murders are still an unsolved mystery. This year, Sarasota detectives revealed that their prime suspects are Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the killers made famous by Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood." Fifty years after their executions, the graves of the two men were exhumed in December for DNA evidence that could solve the Walker case and forever change how Capote's masterwork is viewed. Test results could be available as soon as early January.

— Shannon McFarland

A major shift for SMH

Hospitals fret about money, too. As competition increases and worries grow over the cost of the federal Affordable Care Act, more hospitals are forming partnerships and alliances. Eyebrows were raised when Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a nonprofit, tax-supported institution, announced plans recently to form a "strategic alliance" with BayCare Health System. Patients won't notice a difference, all vow.

— Donna Koehn

Cruel and unusual voting?

Voting became an endurance sport in Florida in 2012, with lines so long people began passing out food and water to keep voters from passing out on the spot. The problem, which many said was predictable, stemmed from a reduction in early voting hours. Now Gov. Rick Scott and others who supported the voting restrictions are calling for them to be re-examined. It's do-over time. Expect this to be a hot topic in the 2013 legislative session.

— Zac Anderson

Costco, Trader Joe's debut

Sarasota's retail landscape continues to grow after highly anticipated openings of a Trader Joe's and Costco Wholesale in Sarasota County. Hundreds of local shoppers swarmed both stores for grand openings that marked the premiere for both chains in the region.

DeSoto Square Mall, too, has caught the eye of Manatee County shoppers after being sold to a New York-based company that specializes in rebuilding ailing shopping centers.

— Justine Griffin

Study: Arts funding up 50%

A national survey released in June by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts showed Sarasota County arts organizations and audiences pumped $180 million into the local economy in 2010, an almost 50 percent increase since the previous survey in 2002. The survey also revealed a nearly 50 percent increase in arts-related full-time jobs and attendance at arts and cultural events in the area, putting Sarasota near the top of 22 communities with populations between 250,000 and 499,000.

— Carrie Seidman

State-run insurer raises rates

Many Florida homeowners could not invoke Citizens Property Insurance's name without cursing in 2012. The state-run insurer did everything possible to upset policyholders, from raising rates to stripping discounts and coverage. State leaders want the government insurer to be so unappealing that customers will bolt for the private market, but private insurers also pushed big rate increases in 2012. Regardless, many companies say they still aren't making enough money. Expect more pain in the wallet in 2013.

— Zac Anderson

South County stabilizes

Parts of south Sarasota County looked eerily deserted after the real estate bust. Lone houses were surrounded by acres of vacant lots. New community centers sat empty. That began to change in 2012 as building permits started increasing in Venice, North Port and unincorporated parts of the region. Work even began on a 1,999-home project. Don't expect development to come roaring back. This wave is expected to build slowly, but the region has much of Sarasota County's undeveloped land, and a return to more steady growth seems like a good bet.

— Zac Anderson

Top GOP booster arrested

The reign of the most powerful non-elected official in Sarasota County politics just might be over. Former GOP chairman Bob Waechter faces felony charges for allegedly stealing a Republican rival's identity to make $235 in campaign donations in her name to Democrats to undercut her chances of winning future Republican primary elections. Instead of taking out Siesta Key community activist Lourdes Ramirez, Waechter may have shorted out his own political career.

— Jeremy Wallace

Targeting the homeless?

The question of how to deal with Sarasota's homeless population hit a fever pitch in 2012 as commissioners tightened policies aimed at shooing homeless people out of a long-established hangout at Selby Five Points Park.

The Five Points struggle included the City Commission's vote to remove benches from the park and tighter enforcement of a no-smoking law.

The commission's push led the American Civil Liberties Union to accuse the city of waging a war on the homeless. Those tensions worsened as police, at the request of frustrated commissioners, cracked down in other areas where the homeless congregate.

One homeless man was arrested and held in jail overnight for charging a cell phone in an outlet at Gillespie Park near downtown. A judge threw out the case, but the story made national headlines and forced city officials to re-evaluate.

In December, a county judge ruled the smoking ban was unenforceable and superseded by state law, another development that is forcing City Hall to re-evaluate its approach.

— J. David McSwane

Trial showed two Sarasotas

The 2011 murders of two British tourists, James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, brought international media attention to Sarasota again in 2012 with the murder trail of Shawn Tyson, the 17-year-old convicted of killing the two with a .22-caliber pistol.

The murders and subsequent trial highlighted Sarasota as a city of contrasts — a world-renowned vacation and retirement spot that attracts the affluent, but also a place with pockets of extreme poverty and violence.

Tyson was found guilty of first-degree murder on March 28. The 12-person jury took less than two hours to reach a verdict. Tyson is appealing the conviction.

— J. David McSwane

The county's contract woes

After a tumultuous 2011 in which favoritism and other problems were exposed with the way Sarasota County contracts with private companies, 2012 was the year of trying to fix those issues.

And 2013 will be the year that proves whether the fixes are truly working or not.

The county has put in place many new ethics rules and promised to better police how county employees do business with the private sector.

Though the number of complaints about the county's contract practices dwindled significantly in 2012, critics point to the county's troubles with basic services — like a contract to mow the grass on public right-of-ways — as a sign that the problems linger.

Another sticking point has been guidelines that are supposed to give local businesses a better chance at landing county contracts.

— Carrie Wells

Curtains for the Apple?

The Golden Apple Dinner Theatre's run as the longest continuously operating dinner theater in the country came to an end in September when it was evicted from the downtown Sarasota theater it had occupied for more than 40 years. Owner Robert Turoff was behind on the rent he owed to the owners of the building he sold more than a year earlier to pay off some debts. But less than three months after the eviction, Turoff has some new partners and is reopening what is now called the Golden Apple Celebrity Theatre with the comedy "Viagara Falls."

— Jay Handelman

A shot in arm for the arts

"The Giving Challenge," a 36-hour online philanthropy marathon that kicked off the debut of The Giving Partner, a website launched by the Community Foundation of Sarasota, raised $2.4 million in March for local nonprofits, many of them arts-related. The Internet resource provides detailed information on area organizations and access to easy online giving. The Manatee Players, in the midst of a capital campaign to complete a new riverfront theater, finished at the top of the beneficiaries, taking in more than $200,000.

— Carrie Seidman

A new era for Sailor Circus

Two of Sarasota's most revered circus groups joined forces in October, when the Sarasota School Board transferred oversight of Sailor Circus, the longest running youth circus program in America, from the Police Athletic League to Circus Sarasota, a nonprofit professional performing circus founded in 1997 by Pedro Reise and his wife, Dolly Jacobs, the renowned aerialist.

Under the terms of the new operating agreement, the two organizations consolidated staffs and fundraising efforts. Sailor Circus continues to provide instruction and performance opportunities for students in grades 4 through 12, and Circus Sarasota, which operates on an annual budget of just under $2 million, will cover the cost of the youth program's liability insurance. A capital campaign is under way to pay for improvements to the facility at 2075 Bahia Vista St., which will now house both organizations.

— Carrie Seidman

A school district reels

Manatee County's superintendent of schools resigned abruptly after revealing that the district had overspent its budget by millions of dollars.

Forensic auditors looking into how the district overspent by $8 million during the last school year expect to wrap up their investigation by Jan. 14.

The investigation includes the interview of key district figures like McGonegal and former finance director Jim Drake.

The revelation of the overspending led to the resignation of McGonegal. Drake had already retired. An analysis by interim Superintendent David Gayler then discovered that an additional $7 million in spending — including promised bonuses for employees — was omitted from the district's budget for this school year.

— Robert Eckhart

Sarasota Ballet rebounds

The Sarasota Ballet, long on shaky financial ground, retired its debt, expanded its dancer base and increased its national reputation in Iain Webb's sixth year as artistic director. The organization opened the Margaret Barbieri Conservatory of Dance, an eight-year training program for pre-professional students in August, launched an all-new, circus-themed "Nutcracker" in December and was invited to return to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in June of 2013.

— Carrie Seidman

Sailor statue gets clobbered

Those who love to hate "Unconditional Surrender" — the controversial bayfront sculpture of a kissing soldier on V-J Day — got an unexpected reprieve in April, when a woman inadvertently crashed her Mercedes into the figure, leaving a gaping hole in the sailor's leg and requiring the statue to be shipped to the foundry for repairs.

Donated to the city by a veteran in 2010, the sculpture, located at U.S. 41 and Bayfront Drive, has been called everything from a "city treasure" to a "tacky eyesore," and some have rooted for it never to return.

In December, however, several months later than planned and after $125,000 in repairs (paid for by the errant driver's insurance), the statue was returned to its original location, immediately becoming, once again, a favorite photo op site for tourists.